


Of Cats and Cute Neighbors

by Anonymous



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, M/M, also pretend they live in a surburban area, baekhyun has no idea how to pet a cat someone help him please, this is totally inspired by that pic of chanyeol buying cat food and feeding cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-28 18:44:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16247603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Baekhyun at first was annoyed to see his neighbor feeding the local strays, but then he has a change of heart and along the way he develops a new crush.





	Of Cats and Cute Neighbors

Baekhyun is abruptly woken up by the sound of Mongryong barking. Groaning loudly due to his sleep being interrupted, Baekhyun blindly reaches for his phone. Only then does he open his eyes when his phone is in his hand and he’s holding it in front of his face. The time reads 8:23 am. On a Saturday, Baekhyun’s usual time of waking up isn’t until the 11-12 range. With having a job that requires him to be getting ready at 5 in the morning, Baekhyun loves to sleep the day away on the weekends.

“What are you barking at?” Baekhyun asks his dog as he comes downstairs and into the living room where he can hear Mongryong. Entering the room, he spots the dog standing on the couch while frantically pawing at the window. 

“Mongryong, stop it.” He walks over to his dog and picks him up so that he can stop leaving scratches on the window. It’s not unusual for Mongryong to try and catch something through the window. There’s squirrels, people with their own dogs walking the sidewalk, the occasional bunny in the backyard, and Mongryong’s favorite: the stray cats.

Pushing back the curtains, and also pushing his corgi back off the couch (when he wants to see what’s going on outside he’s extremely motivated with being able to hop onto it), Baekhyun looks around real quick to see if he can spot whatever disturbed his dog. Usually Mongryong only barks for a few seconds then becomes bored or stops once the thing is out of sight, but this time his barking has been consistent. What he does end up seeing is his neighbor sitting on his front steps across the street, three stray cats surrounding him. 

His neighbor’s name is Park Chanyeol. He moved to the vacant house across the street about a year and a half ago. The houses in the area aren’t very big so they aren’t too terribly expensive, but he figures Chanyeol got the house for a cheaper price since the old man who lived there had died in it. He really hasn’t talked to Chanyeol, if he’s being honest. He seemed friendly enough when he introduced himself the day he moved in, but Baekhyun has since been too busy with his job to really try and make friends with the other, even though they seem close in age. All he knows is that the guy also has a dog, a little black one that looks very poofy, and that he loves to feed the stray cats. 

To Baekhyun, the stray cats are a pain in the ass. They know Mongryong isn’t able to catch them through the window, so they sit outside of it and taunt him as he barks and scratches the window like crazy. A few times he’s even seen one of them ripping apart his trash bag for food, so after that Baekhyun had to find a way to make sure they couldn’t get into them. He doesn’t yell, throw anything at the cats, or harm them, though. He just tells them to shoo and most of the time they are terrified of him and run away as soon as he even gets close to them anyway.

However, ever since Chanyeol moved here, the strays have been coming around more and more since he feeds the damn things. Lord knows if the man has a cat himself and that’s why he has so much cat food or if he just buys them for the strays. More than once, Baekhyun has seen the black haired man sitting outside with paper plates scattered about with piles of food on top of them as the cats eat. He’s even seen him pet them! Baekhyun secretly thinks he’s a cat whisperer.

Today Baekhyun is fed the hell up with his niceness. Yeah, it’s sweet and cute that a guy is feeding stray cats so they don’t starve to death, but can’t he do it at night or something? Or at any time where Baekhyun is either gone or awake so at least his sleep isn’t interrupted again? It makes it worse that Baekhyun’s day wasn’t the best yesterday and he was beyond excited to get some much needed sleep. Now, he can’t due to him being one of those people where if they wake up, it’s impossible to fall back asleep, and it’s all his neighbor’s fault. Pulling sweatpants on, doing a quick hair check, and slipping shoes on, Baekhyun leaves his house to confront him.

“Good morning!” Chanyeol says as Baekhyun approaches  in such a happy voice it probably would have made him smile a bit if he wasn’t in such a sour mood. He really means it when he said Chanyeol seems like a friendly guy, but that doesn’t mean that will make him forgive him.

“It would have been a good morning if I wasn’t woken up,” Baekhyun says bluntly. Deep down, he feels like a jerk for doing this, but not getting enough sleep can really turn someone into an asshole. 

“Is something wrong?” Chanyeol’s bright smile instantly drops at hearing his neighbor’s words. A pout then replaces the smile and it almost makes Baekhyun soften. Okay, that’s cu- wait, he’s not here to think of his neighbor as cute. He’s here to complain to him.

“My dog woke me up by barking and what he was barking at were the cats.” Baekhyun motions to the three cats that are by Chanyeol. They’re still eating the food, but now they’re all eyeing his suspiciously. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Chanyeol’s face turns into a look of horror as if he commited a huge sin instead of just waking up a neighbor. “I was up early and I saw the cats outside. I couldn’t just let them sit there, so I fed them. I really am sorry that I caused your dog to bark.” He does seem genuinely apologetic, and that should be enough, but nope, Baekhyun is still going off.

“Why do you even feed them? They’re just strays. I’m sure they find plenty of food on their own.” Baekhyun has never been a cat person. His whole life he has owned dogs. He honestly thinks they are better than cats and people who willingly own cats are crazy.

“I feel bad for them,” murmurs Chanyeol. He reaches out to one of them, a big orange one, and strokes its back. Baekhyun guesses the cat likes it because its back arches and it’s not turning around to claw Chanyeol’s face off. “They don’t have a home and if they get taken to the shelter, they’ll probably just be put down. I try to give them food so that they know that at least someone cares about them. When they die, I hope they know that I at least cared and gave them love.”

Baekhyun eyes the orange cat that is now rubbing itself all over Chanyeol’s legs. The other two, a tabby looking one and a black and white one, have moved to sitting up on the porch behind Chanyeol grooming themselves. All the food on the plates is gone. Chanyeol’s cuteness meter rises just a bit with his explanation. Instead Baekhyun justs asks, “Why don’t you just bring them inside?” The question makes Chanyeol laugh as he pats the cat’s head.

“First of all, I have a dog. I think bringing in a bunch of cats would drive him crazy even though he doesn’t seem to mind when they’re outside. And secondly, I’m allergic to pet dander.”

“But you have a dog?” comes Baekhyun’s dumb question. Another laugh is what he gets out of Chanyeol. God dammit, it’s a cute laugh. Loud, but cute. No, no, no why all of a sudden is he realizing just how cute his neighbor of a year and a half is now? The first time they’ve ever talked Baekhyun didn’t notice anything special about him besides that he’s tall and his voice definitely does not match his face. Now he’s acting so sweet it’s making Baekhyun almost want to jump his bones.

“Yeah, but he’s a poodle. They’re hypoallergenic and great for people who are allergic to pet dander. If I had even one cat in my house I’d probably die from all the fur and sadly allergy pills don’t work on me. Cat’s aren’t hypoallergenic, except for Sphynx cats, but that’s because they’re hairless. Have you ever seen a picture of one? They look like aliens.” Chanyeol’s face scrunches up as if he smelt something horrible. Another thought of “wow, this guy really is cute” flashes across Baekhyun’s brain.

“Oh, I see now. And they really let you pet them? They always run away from me.” He chooses to ignore the random rambling from his neighbor, but yes, he has seen pictures of Sphynx cats, and yes, he also agrees they look like aliens. 

“It’s because they don’t trust you, but if you’re gentle with them, they’ll grow to like you. Well, maybe not Jellybean and Blossom since they’re super shy, but Freddy might let you pet him.” He motions to the orange cat.

“No, no, it’s okay. I’m not much of a cat person,” Baekhyun dismisses the offer with his hand. 

“I promise you he won’t scratch you. He’s declawed, so someone must have owned him before. It’s so sad. I hope he ran away instead of being thrown out, but no one seems to be missing an orange cat,” comments Chanyeol in a sad tone. The cat is now laying curled up next to Chanyeol’s side on the top step of the house. The other two are still there as well, watching Baekhyun's every move.

“As long as he doesn’t scratch me,” mutters Baekhyun. Hearing that the cat was an indoor cat now turned homeless stray tugs at his heartstrings. Besides, he might as well see if Chanyeol is right. Carefully, he walks closer to the cat, his movements cause the other two to move further away from him, but the orange one remains in his spot, staring at him with yellow eyes. Baekhyun reaches his hand out and- 

“No, not like that.” Suddenly, Chanyeol is reaching his arm out and grabbing Baekhyun's hand. He almost flinches at the touch due to how warm the other’s hand feels and at the unexpected contact in general. Chanyeol turns his palm so that it’s facing up and lowers his arm so when he reaches out his hand will touch the cat’s face instead of the top of the head. 

“If you go overhand, you’ll scare him,” Chanyeol explains in a soft voice. “Go underhand and let him sniff you. It will be pretty obvious if he likes you or not.”

“Okay.” Baekhyun is having second thoughts now since apparently he doesn’t even know how to pet a damn cat. Still, he carefully, since, one, he’s sort of scared, and two, Chanyeol then tells him to reach out slowly, extends his fingers to Freddy the cat.

The cat stands up at seeing the hand coming towards him. It’s not a frantic scramble to get away but a rather leisurely rise. Baekhyun is basically standing in front of Chanyeol now as his arm is extended to the animal. A quick glance at the guy’s face shows that he’s smiling brightly. Baekhyun holds his hand still as the cat sniffs all over it. It’s obvious he smells the scent of Mongryong on his fingertips, but it doesn’t seem like the cat minds since then it’s pushing its face against his fingers. 

“See, there you go!” comes Chanyeol’s excited voice. Baekhyun, to say the least, is shocked at the fact that the cat didn’t swat his hand away or growl or hiss or whatever else cats do when they’re pissed off.

“What do I do now?” Since he’s on a good roll, he doesn’t want to anger the cat. Besides, if he upsets the cat, he might upset Chanyeol, and he doesn’t want to do that.

“Just rub his face and neck, but be gentle,” Chanyeol instructs. He still has a dumb grin on his face as he watches Baekhyun and the cat. One might find that smile on someone’s face when their child takes their first ever step by themselves, but Chanyeol is just a literal ray of sunshine and happiness just radiates off him.

“Hi, kitty,” Baekhyun tries to speak to the cat in hopes that maybe communicating with it will lessen his chances of being attacked. He does as Chanyeol mentioned and starts to lightly scratch at the cat’s face as the feline continues to rub his face all over his hand. He didn’t expect a stray cat’s fur to feel so soft, but it’s a nice feeling.

“I think he’s purring,” says Baekhyun after about 45 seconds of petting, scratching, and rubbing all around Freddy’s face and neck. Chanyeol also extends a hand out again and joins next to Baekhyun’s hand where it’s scratching his neck.

“He is,” confirms Chanyeol. “He likes you.”

“Oh, that’s good.” Again, Baekhyun is shocked. The cat really let him pet him and now the cat is purring because he likes being pet by Baekhyun? Perhaps this is Baekhyun’s greatest achievement in life. 

“That is good. Freddy’s a nice cat.” Chanyeol goes back to petting his back while Baekhyun takes care of scratching under his chin and neck. He thinks the cat is almost in heaven, if cats even go to heaven, at how he seems to soak up all the attention and his purring now sounds like small motor is running.

All of a sudden, the cat leaves. He breaks away from the two hands petting him and hops down the stairs. Baekhyun watches in surprise as the cat walks away as if he wasn’t just being showered in attention. A quick look around reveals that at some point the other two have left as well. Baekhyun then glances at Chanyeol who is watching Freddy walk away, even saying a little goodbye. Chanyeol seems to feel Baekhyun’s gaze since a second later his eyes are on his.

“Why did he leave so suddenly?” Baekhyun asks. If he were that cat he would have stayed for ages as long as the humans were willing to give him the attention. He doesn’t understand why Freddy left that quickly as if they hurt him. I mean Baekhyun doesn’t think he hurt the cat in any way, shape, or form. He would feel horrible if he did.

“Guess he was done with being pet. Cats are just like that. If they’re done receiving attention, they’ll just leave. It’s nothing against you, or me.” Chanyeol stands up, brushing off the fur that has collected in his lap. “I need to change my clothes now before my eyes start watering. Next time they come around I’ll try and lead them to the backyard and feed them there. Again, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Baekhyun finally accepts the apology. “I’m sorry I got so mad. What you’re doing is a good thing. You can keep feeding them out here if it’s easier.” Baekhyun wasn’t expecting to have his thoughts about the strays changed or develop a small crush on his neighbor, but here he is.

“If I happen to wake you up again, feel free to join me,” Chanyeol offers, a bright smile still plastered his face. 

“I’ll see about that. Have a good day, Chanyeol.” 

“You too, Baekhyun.” With a wave, Chanyeol turns around so he can go instead. Baekhyun also turns and begins to head back to his house. Only two thoughts cross his mind. The first one is Park Chanyeol is actually a softie who is very cute and the second one is oh boy, Mongryong is going to be pissed when he comes back smelling like a cat.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this. This was just a little idea I came up with and I just sort of typed this up one night. Also, apparently there are hypoallergenic cats, which I honestly didn't know, so I guess I lied when I typed out saying cats aren't hypoallergenic. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story! Thank you for reading!


End file.
